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There are many reason for not trying to imitate what the big corporations are doing with their marketing.
One reason of course is you don't have millions of dollars to spend.
Another is you don't have millions of dollars to waste.
Just because they are a multi-billion dollar corporation doesn't mean they are smart about their marketing. I've just seen another great example, from a guy that worked in marketing for two of the Big Three Detroit auto companies. First he worked for one, where they set their TV budget by seeing what company #2 spent. Then he went to work for company #2. You know how they set their TV budget? You got it.... they watched what company #1 spent.
As Bugs Bunny used to say "What a bunch of Maroons."
Did you know you can do a Google search two times and get different results, one right after the other?
Google handles such a huge volume of searches that they have multiple data centers around the U.S. and across the world.
These data centers don't always get the same updates at the same time. And sometimes one or more of them might be testing a new version of their software.
If you're curious just how much difference this can make, here's a nice tool that will query 10 Google data centers and show you all of their results. We ran a few tests and it never happened that all of them agreed.
Search Multiple Google Data Centers
In the cycle of any new product or product category, prospects group as Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards.
Innovators already ordered their 4G iPhones. Laggards maybe don't even own cell phones.
No matter what you are selling, it only makes sense to determine where in this cycle you are trying to reach people.
Their emotional requirements are very different. Early Adopters and Innovators are looking for something new. The Majority are picking up on what everyone else is buying, looking for something safe.
Sometimes you are targeting more than one or two of these groups. But in that case it is going to be with very different marketing and probably different products or services.
Only when you have answered this can you do sensible marketing.
I've written frequently about the value of video on your website.
It isn't just for the visitors. It can be a decided plus for search too.
For some time now, Google has been including videos in its search engine results pages. Whether it shows none, one or a few videos is going to vary wildly. But if you have videos online, Google can index them and you have at least the chance that they will show up on page one - as a possibly additional listing to the page itself. And videos are POPULAR. People love to click on them.
No surprise, Google will prefer to show videos from youTube (which they own), so make sure you put your videos up there as well as on your own website.
Name them and tag them descriptively using your search terms.
It's not helpful in every case, and it's not a guaranteed winner, but it can generate traffic to your site, and on occasion, it can be a big winner.
It's worth doing. Oh yes, and fun too.
It is widely known that for Google, Content Is King. In short, the more website you have, the better you are likely to rank.
The crudest manifestation of this is the more pages to the site, the higher it is likely to rank.
But not all content is equal.
Especially in their latest changes, Google has put more emphasis on the QUALITY of the content. Google isn't hiding this fact either, Matt Cutts has said so in no uncertain words.
One aspect of this: Google has become more reluctant to index a page just because it is there. Instead, it is picking and choosing and may index only a fraction of your pages.
It has become clear that one of the major clues Google is using to determine this is the STRUCTURE of your website. So, for example, it is much less likely to index all of a blog.
This is something to pay attention to. I know of no hard-and-fast rules and it is certainly going to vary from site to site. So look at which pages Google is and isn't indexing on your site, and experiment.
It's easier than ever to put videos on YouTube.
There is now limited video editing capability online at YouTube's Test Tube.
Here's the announcement on Google's official blog.
Some businesses by their nature are national or international - most online stores for example. But the majority of businesses operate locally or at most state-wide or regionally.
How does that change things?
For one, you need to ensure you are listed correctly in Google Places (what they called Maps and before that Local). And also in Bing's and Yahoo's versions of the same thing.
Plus in Yellow Pages sites such as SuperPages, plus the variety of local directory websites out there such as Kudzu, MerchantCircle, etc.
If you have more than one location, make sure all your locations are listed.
If you service areas in which you don't have a location, consider getting a virtual location - with a mailbox address and forwarding phone number for the area.
Ensure areas you serve are named on your website, including having individual pages for each location.
If you are running click ads such as Google AdWords, make sure you are limiting the area where your ads appear to those in your actual service area.
There's more to it, but make sure you at least get these done.
Everyone wants their company, product or service to spread like wildfire. Seth Godin has the right viewpoint on this:
"The only stories that work, the only stories which impact, the only stories that spread are the 'I can't believe that!' stories. These are the stories that aren't just repeatable: these are the stories that demand to be repeated."
"Your story doesn't have to be salacious [naughty] or noisy or over the top. But it must be remarkable. Too often marketers are so self-absorbed that they believe that their story deserves to spread. Hey, you don't get to decide what spreads - the public does. Authentic stories that earn the right to be passed on will be passed on. It's up to you, the marketer, to earn that right."
Over and over, companies tell me a vision that is just too ordinary. The ones that succeed big are the Steve Jobs and Richard Bransons of the world. They had a big, very different idea and weren't afraid to pursue it whole-heartedly.
I've said it before. David Ogilvy said as much. You can't bore people into buying what you're selling.
GoDaddy seems to have become the default choice for domain registration and website hosting. In my opinion they are the latest incarnation of AOL - their target is people that don't know much about the Internet.
They spend their money on advertising and Danica Patrick instead of on tech support and customer service.
Their do-it-yourself website builder, Website Tonight, is the worst such program I've seen yet.
If you register a domain with them and don't put up a website on it, they will advertise on and make money off your domain. You are paying them to make money off of your domain.
Their account interface is hard to navigate and hard to figure out (it isn't as bad as Network Solutions, I'll give them that).
Should I go on?
Their services are cheap, so they do have something going for them.
"Nuclear weapons have killed a tiny fraction of the number of people that unethical marketing has. It's time to realize that there may be no more powerful weapon on Earth."
-- Seth Godin, "All Marketers Are Liars"
Google as of June 8th, officially announced the rollout of Caffeine (their new, faster, more efficient software) is complete.
That was no new news to members of the SEO community. It is nice to get the official word.
Bigger news is Matt Cutts, Google's more-or-less official spokesman, talking about some of the recent changes they have made in their search algorithm (how they rank pages). Even he is referring to it as "Mayday" (the unofficial name SEO's gave it):
Link to the video.
One big take-away: Put even more emphasis on quality content (copy) - not just number of pages or any-old-copy.
The subject of "target markets" is fundamental to marketing. How can you market successfully if you don't know who you are trying to reach?
"Target market", "market segment", and "public" are all synonyms for a group of potential buyers who can be considered together for purposes of marketing. They have similar likes and dislikes, wants and needs, read the same publications, and so on.
Seth Godin, one of the first great online marketers and still a smart thinker, has an interesting take on this, in his book "All Marketers Are Liars."
He talks about a "worldview" - the "rules, values, beliefs and biases that an individual consumer brings to a situation":
"Marketing succeeds when enough people with similar worldviews come together in a way that allows marketers to reach them cost-effectively."
Find a market segment that works for you, for your budget and what your selling.
Then what do you do?
"Don't try to change someone's worldview is the strategy smart marketers follow. Don't try to use facts to prove your case and to insist that people change their biases. You don't have enough time and you don't have enough money. Instead, identify a population with a certain worldview, frame your story in terms of that world-view and you win."
In short, you need to develop a branding - a coherent consistent picture and presentation that appeals to that worldview.
It is always easier to fill a demand than to create one.
Spend your time finding out who already wants what you are selling, and how to explain it to them so they get it.
It's a lot easier, more fun and more profitable than other ways of going about it.
A lot of marketing takes the bludgeon approach. If you hit them hard enough and often enough, they'll buy.
If you spend enough money on advertising, people will remember and purchase your products. (That isn't necessarily true - there are cases where it's been proven advertising DECREASED sales of a product.)
But most companies can't take that "just throw enough money at it" approach.
With good branding your marketing becomes more like a scalpel. A precision approach. It's a lot less bloody.
It requires a consistent approach through every aspect - what marketing channels you use, color scheme, slogan, ad wording, choice of imagery, fonts - everything.
It has to be an approach that makes sense to your prospective buyer. Then you have to stick with it.
For how long has BMW been The Ultimate Driving Machine? Decades.
You notice they haven't needed a Bailout either. They actually made a profit in 2009.
Any company trying to get its marketing off the ground is likely to run into issues with its cash flow.
In many businesses, the cost of developing a new customer, client or patient is more than the gross profit on the initial sale. Prosperity comes over the long-term, with repeat business and word-of-mouth.
Of course that is why everyone loves referrals, since they are so cheap both of time and money to turn into customers.
If you are ambitious, sooner or later referrals are not enough.
Then you need a business model for expansion, that works.
That is when so many look to investors, partners, or loans.
But how nice it is when you can manage your expansion just off your own cash flow.
If you are mailing something in an envelope, it is worth putting some thought into the outside of the envelope.
There is one crucial idea in mind:
Maximize the number of people who open the envelope.
If you can put something on the outside of the envelope that people will notice, which makes them curious, and which appeals to a vital problem or interest - then you will have a likely winner.
When designing an envelope, we start with this goal: Make opening the envelope irresistible to any serious prospect.
David Ogilvy again:
Always design your layout for the publication in which it will appear, and never approve it until you have seen how it looks when pasted into that publication.... A layout must relate to the graphic climate of the newspaper or magazine which is to carry it.
Yellow Pages too. We try to always have a copy of last years Yellow Pages, the section in which the ad we are designing will appear. If everyone else is using blues and greens, yellows and reds will make our ad much more noticed.
This rule applies just as well to the Internet. What do competitor websites look like? How are they structured?
Then make sure your website looks different but not too different.
Legal website are particularly bad in this regards. They are virtually indistinguishable, one from another. And certainly no one will remember one over another.
The International Space Station and Shuttle Atlantis against a backdrop of the Sun (click on picture for full-size image and description).
These are difficult and unsettling times.
The economy is certainly in poor shape compared to almost any period in the last 65 years.
No one can promise how it will go, though most signs suggest a slow recovery over the next few years.
Events such as the Gulf oil well leak are not only a problem for the environment. It has severely affected tourism along the Gulf Coast.
We continue to see wild swings in consumer buying moods. One month traffic to websites drops across the boards. The next, traffic takes a big jump but conversion ratios (percentage of contacts, signups or purchases from a site) drop. Then contacts suddenly go out the roof.
At the same time, vendors such as Google are changing more rapidly than ever.
What is a marketer to do?
There is only one answer: Good sound marketing. Continuing to work at improving it. And enough of a marketing budget to matter.
Now is not the time to skimp on marketing, on time, effort or budget.
As I've pointed out, Google has been making changes both visible and under the hood, at a mad rate.
The latest change people have been able to distinguish is being called "Mayday" because it occurred on or about May 1st - and because it badly affected some websites rankings and traffic.
Drops in traffic as much as 90% have been reported. Other sites have noticed modest improvements in ranking and traffic.
Smaller sites don't seem to be much affected by this. We have noticed some affects on larger sites and VERY large sites (tens of thousands of pages) can be majorly affected by it.
This article has a good summary and links on the subject.
MAYDAY Google update
"When I started writing advertisements, I was determined to blaze new trails, to make every one of my campaigns the most successful in the history of the industry concerned. I have not always failed."
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